The Indian team is through to the semi-finals of the year’s biggest cricket event. It’s not the team which is led by Virat Kohli – but that isn’t stopping the men’s captain from issuing a rally-the-troops call to the country.
In a gesture which is bound to create a social media ‘movement’ of sorts, Kohli has called out to followers of Indian sport to come out in vociferous support of the Women in Blue, who qualified for the semi-finals of the ICC Women’s World T20 in West Indies with victory over Ireland on Thursday, 15 November.
I’m super proud of our girls, wearing our colours and playing their hearts out. Representing your country, and wearing this jersey, is a proud moment. This jersey doesn’t care who you are, where you come from, and what your gender is. Hold up your arm in support of Team India in the West Indies.Virat Kohli
Kohli, who along with the rest of the men’s team embarked upon the much-awaited tour of Australia on Thursday, nominated India team-mate Rishabh Pant, Indian football captain Sunil Chhetri, and badminton star Saina Nehwal to kick-start the #JerseyKnowsNoGender campaign – basically calling upon India to cheer for the women’s team as they aim to bring home a maiden ICC title.
It didn’t take long for the word to spread...
Rishabh Pant heeded his captain’s call immediately, and, perhaps excitedly, opted to add women’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur to the thread – which elicited a tongue-in-cheek response from the ICC World T20’s official Twitter handle!
Credit to Harmanpreet, though: she didn’t take too long to respond!
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)